THE MAP FOR THE TERRITORY A selection of houses for OfHouses
An anthology emulates a history of architecture the same way in which the latter uses works of architecture to exemplify or reinforce a certain idea or train of thought. We could state too that the concept of an architectural anthology has little to do with architecture; the works selected serve just as narrative vehicles. Within the framework of this idea, I would like to point out a definition proposed by FĂŠlix de AzĂşa in his Diccionario De Las Artes. In it, he says that architecture at its most fundamental degree commits to the art of building houses. Today there are fewer and fewer houses and therefore less architecture. A house by definition, argues de AzĂşa, has nothing to do with technical aspects, socioeconomic context or design guidelines; a house amount to its inner contradictions, concessions and uses that over time personify the owners. A house reflects the fears and longings of its dwellers and little by little adapts to experiences and events that itself accommodates; ultimately a house is made of stories on top of other stories, a house is the narrative of its possibilities and impossibles. What this interpretation proposes above all is the firsthand experience of space, dwelling in a building until it transforms with time into architecture. Without a time-spatial dimension architecture does not exist. What exist in its place is simulacra: photos, drawings, models. A fiction we take for architecture; the map for the territory. The following small selection of houses or maps of this territory will be superimposed with other fictions, and used here as means of posing the idea that for the most part, our relationship as architects with Architecture and its Histories is no more than a simulation.
PAULO BASTOS
Residence in Alto de Pinheiros Sao Paulo, Brazil. 1970
Backdrops This house was used during early shooting stages of the HBO original series ‘‘PSI’’ in Sao Paulo. Negotiations and permits to work with Vilanova Artigas’ Rubens da Mendoca house fell through, and Alto Pinheiros was the logical choice. Unfortunately it was discarded shortly after that, as it proved hard for the filming crew to move around the space that connected the private and common areas inside the house. First and second camera assistants fell from the stairs while shooting. Finally, the production went for a conventional apartment on a middle-upper class suburb in the city.
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JUVENAL BARACCO & FRANCO VELLA
Casa Hastings Lima, Perú. 1976
Hearsay of an Occupation The invention of macabre stories is a common Latin-American device used as means of diverting attention from something into something else. Though sometimes the desired effect is the opposite. Due to the outgoing bohemian lifestyle of its owners, Casa Hastings remained most part of the year vacant. To avoid house break-ins during their traveling spells, the owners run rumors of a weeping female voice that could be heard in the back of the backyard during particularly foggy Limeñan nights. Rumor spread like wildfire through the service staff and shortly after, said weeping voice in the backyard turned into the chant of a creole slave that could predict future events for whoever paid attention. The story evolved and became a conversation with dead spirits and eventually ‘‘the faithful’’ started seeing faces of saints and martyrs in the salt impressions left on the surrounding walls after the mist and the night were gone. Today entering or leaving the house discreetly (let alone breaking-in) is nearly impossible; there is a stable gathering of people lighting candles and praying on a makeshift shrine right outside the house. THE MAP FOR THE TERRITORY
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PETER MÄRKLI & GODY KÜHNIS
Two Houses in Trübbach Sankt Gallen, Switzerland. 1982
Mysterious Contents ‘‘-I never really interacted too much with the first family -said one of the interviewed neighbors-. They were odd people with odd routines and customs. There were always people coming in, they often received visitors and sometimes the number of people that went into the house did not quite correspond to the size of it. One of the adults, a short bald man which I assume was the family father, religiously greeted me and everyone that passed by, while he watered his garden every morning -added.’’ ‘‘-On afternoons exotic aromas came from their kitchen, and smells of food that seemed out of season or at strange daily hours made me suspicious. On saturday nights there was always moderate music, laughter and the murmur of long conversations coming from the veranda. One morning they all showed up at my door, talked about how beautiful the landscape was and then said goodbye, apologizing for any inconvenient that they might have caused. After that I never saw them again. Others live there now -concluded- .We have never spoken or greeted, but they behave like normal people.’’ THE MAP FOR THE TERRITORY
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ELADIO DIESTE
Casa Dieste Montevideo, Uruguay. 1963
Hidden Legacy The house is today the property of a former UN employee, whose name translated into English literally is ‘‘Mr. Secret’’ (Sr. Segredo). Denied by years working abroad of settling in his native Montevideo, Mr. Secret decided upon retirement to buy and live in what was once Eladio Dieste’s home. ‘‘In a small country petty fights adopt bigger proportions, and over time neither architectural nor engineering associations, antagonist institutions in Uruguay’s professional landscape - confides Mr. Secret - had been diligent enough to protect and spread the legacy of a figure that didn’t fit in either party’s agenda.’’ ‘‘-As a trained engineer - he explained - Dieste’s personal quests stood apart from those of the engineer’s milieu, and for the architects association he never stopped being an engineer; that little paradox has sent him slowly into our small national oblivion - he concluded.’’ Meanwhile, what was an austere brick construction is today a living museum, preserved and maintained industriously as if still a home. THE MAP FOR THE TERRITORY
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ROLAND RAINER
Sommerhaus Sankt Margarethen im Burgenland, Austria. 1976
Expectations In 1957, USSR sends the first Sputnik into orbit. Adolf Schärf is elected president of Austria. Britain becomes the 3rd country to detonate a nuclear bomb. Ghana declares its independence from the UK. The South African government approves racial segregation in universities. Smoking is connected with lung cancer for the first time in the USA and Sukarno, the 1st president of Indonesia, expels the remaining 40,000 dutch citizens from the country. In 1957, and unbeknownst to all the changes shaping the world, a small summer retreat is erected. Water and electricity are used only for vital commodities, and comfort is reduced to a minimal luxurious expression. “-What did you pretend with all this asceticism? - asked his friend seated in the kitchen table, while lighting a new cigarette - We can’t even plug a record player.” The two men gazed for a moment cigarette smoke spirals dance through the light that cut across the kitchen dimness. The silence between them was interrupted by the soft rattling of boiling water. “- Maybe this - he answered - A table like this, in a kitchen like this, in this very same dimness. Or maybe I did not pretend anything - he continued - and this house is the result.” THE MAP FOR THE TERRITORY
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GION CAMINADA
Caminada House Vrin, Switzerland. 1995
Time & Space Initially, the inhabitants of this house lived in the 21st century. Laptops, cellphones, motion sensors and electricity made everyday life easier. After a while certain automations seemed redundant, and light sensors and clime control devices disrupted the routine, like carrying firewood and bringing milk from nearby farms. Later the TV, first on mute and then turned off kept radiating frenetic attention. It was left in the storage room. The urge for long distance communications, of talking without a present interlocutor became ludicrous, cellphones now seemed like strange nuisances. Finally electricity proved excessive, daylight was enough for everyday chores and during nighttime chimney fire and candlelight shadows provided enough entertainment to fill in the idle hours. After some years the house merged with its surroundings, and the house inhabitants and their ways, merged too with the ways of centuries past. THE MAP FOR THE TERRITORY
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HIROSHI NAKAO
Weekend House (Black Box Bird Cage) Osaka, Japan. 1993
A Sense Of Darkness The blind man recalled: ‘‘I was already blind when I moved into the neighborhood. Sometime after, that place became my spatial landmark. During summer, when I walked along the street I could feel that there was an unusual concentration of heat coming from the spot. In winter when it was snowing, I felt a dim contrast between it and its surroundings. I am blind it’s true, but altogether I can still slightly perceive light changes in my surroundings. And during spring and cool autumn days, there was a sort of void, as if a muted tranquility emanated from there. At first I believed it was a temple or memorial of some sorts. Only later I learned it was just a house painted completely in black.’’
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Drawings & Texts Cristian Valenzuela Pinto